CD's or Vinyl?


Gun to your head, if you could only pick one, which would you choose.  As nostalgic and sublime as Vinyl can be I think I'd have to go with Cd's.  Just seems cleaner and more pristine to me.

And You?

 

klimt

My digital setup is pretty good but my vinyl rig handily surpasses it...alot. Vinyl all the way

To add LPs I would have to buy decent TT (not cheap) and phono section.  For money spent I could replace my current speakers.  Keeping both LP and CD is not the best way to go IMHO.  I decided to go with CD, since LPs are more expensive, with smaller selection and require more attention.  In addition I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the computer server with room/speaker equalization I have now. Some of my CDs have fantastic sound, showing that media itself is not the limiting factor.  The only worse thing I can see is possibly more compression (intended for smaller speakers), but it is not bad in comparison to pops and clicks on the scratched LP - that I cannot stand (they bring me back from the concert to my living room) .  One more factor, that was never mentioned, is that CD can be copied.  According to RIAA I can legally copy my friends’ CDs as long as I copy them for my own use on the media that paid royalties to artists, like "Audio CD-R".  Tape manufacturing companies used to pay royalties to artist fund per foot of manufactured tape.  That way tape recording of LPs or radio stations was legal.

CDs hands down. I grew up listening to vinyl and dumped my collection decades ago in favor of CDs. Was sick of the warpage, surface noise and royal pain of maintaining vinyl and a turntable. Today, a high quality CD transport and standalone DAC costs less than an equivalent turntable, cartridge and phono pre-amp. CDs are way cheaper than vinyl and less risk when buying used. CDs have the benefits of physical media without the hassle.